Blowing Out a Wish
by bamboo72498
Summary: The continuing adventures of the five Castle quintuplets, this time it's their First Birthday!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Have you all missed me as much as I've missed you? This is a sequel to my first 'Five Little Monkey's' book. It's set one year later and you don't have to have read the first book to read this one, but it would make SO much more sense.**

**Disclamor: We all know they aren't mine except fro Danielle, Liam, Miyana, Austin and Finn.**

**Enjoy!**

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Monday

Party Countdown: 5 days

He should have all of the awards. People will erect statues in his name after this one. He will have his own holiday, maybe.

Richard Castle has successfully gotten five almost one year olds down for a nap, started a second load of laundry and is working on the twelfth chapter of his newest book; a little behind, but still on track.

He types away on his laptop, the keys clicking in an almost syncopated rhythm. He stops every few lines, re-reads his words, changes them, reads again, and then goes back to typing.

He's too lost in his chapter to even register the front door opening and doesn't notice Kate is home until she wraps one arm around his chest and quickly presses random buttons on his keyboard with the other.

"Hey!" he squeals, smacking her hand away and quickly deleting all of Kate's handy work. "Hey!" this 'hey' is different, not anger, but surprise and happiness. "You're home early!"

"Yea we caught the guy and got a confession out of him like half an hour after I called you," she says half sitting on the desk, a hand on his chest for support.

"So, was I right? Was it the best friend?" he brightens at his idea, trying to help his friends.

"Actually no," she watches his face falls and pauses a moment to let him wallow in self-pity. "It was the best friend's boyfriend. But your idea helped put us in the right direction, so thank you," she says leaning down to kiss him, before standing up and moving to their room.

"Are the kids still asleep?" she asks checking her phone. It's nearly four, they will be up soon.

"Yes, for now," he says, stretching his arms over his head, feeling his upper back and shoulder muscles stretch out from sitting too long.

"Good," her voice is muffled from the open closet door. She emerges changed into a baggy shirt, grey yoga pants, and barefoot; her heels shed at the front door.

She moves to the bathroom to take off her make-up. Castle can hear the crinkling of the packaging for the make-up wipes she uses. He leans back in his chair and can just make out her profile in the doorway as she lifts a hand and swipes the wipe over her eye, the eyeliner and mascara coming off like magic.

She comes out a minute later sans make-up and her copper curls up in a messy bun to keep it off her face.

"Has she caught the guy yet?" Kate asks, coming into the study and pulling the extra rolling chair over to Castle's desk.

"Not yet, maybe in the next chapter or so; she's still interrogating the first suspect," Castle says, still typing and not meeting Kate's eyes.

"Still? Didn't she interrogate him last chapter?"

"No last chapter was the lead up to the interrogation; this chapter is the actual thing."

Kate just rolls her eyes and leaves her husband to work. Besides, she didn't want to be spoiled; she hates that. She wants to find out what happens along with everyone else who gets the book when it first comes out.

She's looking through the fridge and cabinets for something to make for dinner when she hears the tell-tale signs that babies are awake from their naps and ready to come downstairs and play.

Kate walks up the stairs, making sure the baby gate is closed behind her, down the hall and into the quints nursery.

She turns on the light and turns off the small tea lamp that sits on the bookcase as a nightlight.

All five babies are is various stages of wake. Danielle is standing up in her crib, tiny fingers grasping the top rail, and babbling loudly, telling her mom she's ready to be out of bed and wants to play. While Miyana on the other hand is still lying down and rubbing her hands over her eyes and yelling back at her sister, obviously mad that she was woken up from nap by her insomniac of a sister.

"Alright, alright, I hear you," Kate says walking over to Dani's crib and picking up the baby. Kate lays her on the changing pad, strips off her bottoms and pulls a clean diaper from the drawer. Kate keeps a hand on Danielle to make sure she doesn't roll off, which has happened before, while she changes her.

Danielle is still babbling, the occasional 'real' work coming out, and using her vast knowledge of baby sign language to talk to her mom.

Castle had started teaching the kids to sign when they were eight months old. They all picked up on it fairly quickly, but Danielle has defiantly taken an interest for it, learning more signs than her siblings.

Kate slips the same pair of blue leggings Dani was wearing to bed, over her feet, then stands her up to pull them the rest of the way up. She fixes the girl's 'Pebbles Flinstone' hair that had almost fallen out, and sets the girls down on her feet. Danielle takes a few shaky steps before getting her footing and attempting to run for the door, but not quite getting it yet.

"Not-uh Danielle, you stay here," Kate tells her daughter, who turns at the sound of her name.

She knows full and well that Danielle and Liam can reach their door knob, and have been known to sneak out when either her or Castle were trying to get them dressed or ready for a bath or for bedtime. That's why they put those knob locks on all of the doors so that the kids don't escape and get hurt.

Kate gives the girl a look and that seems to work as she gets distracted by a toy sitting in the fabric toy box in the corner of the room. She shakes her head, but moves back to the cribs to grab the next baby in line. The first one she sees is Austin, even though it really should be Liam's turn as the cribs are set up in birth order, but sometimes things change, and the kids need to learn the value of patience.

He gives his mom a huge, dimpled cheeked grin when she comes to pick him up. He's babbling nonsensical baby talk, but the word 'mama' does slip out a time or two. Kate changes him and wipes his running nose with an old burp cloth they use as washable tissues.

Once Austin is steady back on the ground, they round up his sister who is still engrossed in the toys and together they walk out of the door, down the hall and to the stairs.

Austin reaches up to be picked-up, but independent Danielle squawks at her mom's offer to be picked up. Instead she turns around and goes down their stairs feet first, like her dad taught her too. It's a slow process – one step at a time, but they eventually reach the bottom and Kate sets Austin over the gate first, then picking up Danielle under her arms and setting her on the other side. The two are already halfway to the toys when Castle comes out of his office.

"Incoming, Daddy!" Kate calls, but Castle has already seen the two. Castle picks up Austin and swings him around, making the boy giggle and squeal.

Kate stays on the steps a second longer; just to be sure they are alright. When they are she turns tail to repeat the process for the other three.

Liam is screaming when Kate returns, mad that his 'younger' brother got to go downstairs before he did.

"Liam, Liam, Liam, what are we going to do with you, huh?" Kate asks her son as she picks him up, his screaming quieting once his demands have been met.

He babbles up at her, running sticky hands over her face. Kate pulls them off and puts them to her lips, kissing them with a smack that makes Liam giggle.

Kate lays him down and changes his _very _wet diaper. He tries to squirm away the whole time, not liking the whole 'getting cleaned up' thing. Finally Kate has his pants back up; she smacks his bottom lightly and sets him onto the floor. He stays right next to Kate's leg, whining and wanting attention from his mom.

"Liam, buddy you need to move. I'm going to step on you," Kate says trying to get her son away from her feet where she is afraid she might get stepped on if Kate isn't paying attention. "I promise I will be with you in a minute. I need to get you sisters cleaned up," Liam is still whining but has moved over to his bed and is trying to get his puppy stuff animal that Alexis had given him when he was born through the bars of his crib.

Now that he was occupied for a few minutes; Kate could get the last two girls cleaned up. Miyana had stood up in her crib and was giving her mom and brother a 'ham' face: nose and eyes scrunched up, and a huge smile.

"Your brother is so silly, huh Mia?" Kate asked, picking up her daughter and kissing her cheek with a smack.

The girl babbles happily, giving her mom a re-cap of everything she missed during the day while she was at work.

After she is changed, Miyana toddles over to her brother and hits him, making him cry.

"Miyana, we don't hit," Kate scolded, getting down to her daughter's level, into her face. Kate grabbed her daughter's hand and smacked the back of it. Not hard, just enough for the girl to learn that doing mean things has consequences, and immediately Miyana begins to cry; not liking being punished for hitting her brother.

She moves the kids away from their cribs, over to the toys where, hopefully, they won't get into too much mischief.

Last but not least, Finn. Still the smallest, but catching up to the others; and probably the one with the most problems.

"Hello my little girl," Kate coos at Finn who is lying on her side, a new skill she had just learned. "Are you ready to get up?" Finn rolls back over and reaches for her mom. "Alright let's go," again Kate picks the baby up and kisser all over, making her giggle

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Instead of walking down the hall like she knows he can do, Liam bear crawls to the stairs and Kate laughs. Her son is so silly sometimes.

Liam stops at the top though and looks up at his mom, reaching to be picked up and carried. Kate scoops him up: Finn on one arm, Liam on the other. Miyana looks up for a minute, asking why her brother and sister are being carried, but not her.

Kate gives her an apologetic look, but Miyana shrugs it off. She is the sweetest thing. The girl turns around, lies on her belly, and goes down the stairs slowly, carefully, one at a time, feet and bottom first.

The reach the bottom and Kate hits the latch on the gate, letting it swing open and watching Miyana step down the last few steps before standing and toddling over to the rest of her family, and more importantly: the toys.

She tries to set Liam down but he wraps his legs and arms further around her body and whimpers.

"Alright, I won't let you go. You're alright."

They head over to where Castle is sitting on the couch watching the others play with toys and half listen to the Nick Junior show that is on TV.

Kate drops onto the couch next to her husband, two kids still hanging off of her. She moves her hand from around Finn to take her hair out of Liam's fist, before picking him up and standing him on her thighs. She bounces her legs and drops her arms for a second, catching him before he can fall. This game goes on for a while, until Liam is laughing so hard he's gasping for air, as is Kate; she's laughing because her son is laughing.

She loves this time of day. Everyone is home from work and up from a nap and dinner is still a little bit away. She loves getting to play with her kids for a little while as she hasn't seen them all day.

Castle has taken Finn out from under her mom, who was sitting on the girl's leg and is helping her to sit up on her own. His hands are in her armpits and she's sitting on his knee, with nothing supporting her besides her dad's hands. He lets go and watches the muscles in her torso start to work and hold her up for a full two minutes; longer than she's been able to do all week.

Castle smiles and praises his baby girl with kisses and words of encouragement. She works so hard.

"Look Kate, she did it!" Castle says, looking at his wife who is cuddling their son, running her hands up and down his stomach.

Kate looks over and smiles. "Good job, baby girl." She's really proud of how far Finn has come in the past few months.

Austin has toddled over and is trying to get his parents attention by repeatedly making the sign for 'eat' and whining.

Rick looks when he notices his son's presence. "Good job buddy, 'eat' that's right," he praises, but when Austin doesn't stop, Castle gets the message "Oh 'eat' okay, hold on bud. Kate," he says, tapping his wife on the leg, getting her attention. "Your son is hungry."

"Oh, so he's _my _son now?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

Castle nods, stands and helps Kate up. Liam has long since left her arms and gone to the toys – cars and trucks are by far his favorites.

"Alright let's get some dinner ready," Kate says moving towards the kitchen.

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Theirs is not much in terms of food; they really need to go grocery shopping, but Kate manages to throw something together: macaroni and cheese, pears and hot dogs. Not the most nutritious dinner, but it's something everyone will eat.

Castle has rounded up the kids and put them in their booster seats around the table with their bibs on and sippy cups filled with milk. Bottles are a thing of the past in the Castle family and now everyone drinks from cups like big people.

Kate plates the food, putting them on divided plates because her kids have a thing about their food touching, and sets them on the outside of the counter for Castle to hand out to the kids.

"So, what's the plan for this week?" Kate asks as she plates food for herself and Castle (they'll probably end up ordering take out once the kids are in bed).

"Well Finn has therapy tomorrow morning."

"Right, I'm going to take her." Castle nods, takes his plate and sits at the table with his kids. Kate follows him around the counter and sits down at the other end.

"And Wednesday morning we have our play group and I called that daycare Ryan and Jenny have Grace in and they said we could come by anytime so long as we call them beforehand so they know we're coming."

Kate moves to speak, but Castle stops her.

"I know you said we were waiting a while longer, but you also said I could look but not touch."

He's right. That's what she said.

"Alright, well set it up. Just let me know so I can work out my schedule."

"Thursday is another therapy day for Finn, and if you can't get out of work, I can take her. I have a work meeting on Friday and Saturday is party day."

Kate smiled at that.

They were just under a week away from the quints first birthday party. They had been planning for months and luckily everything was coming together quite well. Just the small details need to be taken care of. The party won't be held on their actual birthday, which is the following weekend, since Kate has to work on their actual birthday. But celebrating a week early never hurt anyone.

"It's kind of sad, don't you think? They're one now, not babies anymore," Kate says, her eyes sad.

The party was kind of bitter sweet. The quints weren't babies anymore, they were into toddlerhood now. Her babies were growing up entirely too fast for her liking.

"Don't think of it as a sad or bad thing. Think of it as the start of the second book in their series of life. It's just a new adventure."

She smiles and pushes her food around on her plate. It wasn't exactly what she wanted for dinner.

Danielle is asking for more, her plate almost empty, she's using the sign for 'more' and trying to say it but only annunciating the 'M' sound.

Kate scrapes the rest of her food onto her daughter's plate, stands and moves back into the kitchen and puts her plate in the sink

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Bath time has always been Kate's job. After being at work all day she needs some time, like playing downstairs before dinner, to be with her kids and watch how they've grown over the day or new things they learned when she wasn't looking. Castle doesn't argue. After being with the kids all day, he needs a break at night and if Kate can get them ready for bed, then that's just one less thing he has to worry about.

After nearly a year, Kate has gotten quite well at giving five squirmy, wet babies a bath; has it almost down to a science.

She strips then down to diapers then goes to fill the tub. Both boys get washed first, and she lets them play for a few minutes before getting them out and wrapping a towel around each of them. She sends them back to their room to their dad who is waiting with pajamas and she repeats the process with the girls.

Once everyone is clean and dry they all play for a little while before it's time for a story. Everyone finds a spot on either mommy or daddy's lap and Castle cracks open one of the well-worn board books in the quints collection. The favorite right now is _The Very Hungry Caterpillar, _one book Castle and Beckett think every child should know.

After a story, or two, everyone gets hugs a kisses and it put into bed with their loveys and pacifiers and cups of milk or whatever else they need to sleep. The night light goes on and the overhead light gets turned off.

With one last 'sleep tight' from Kate, the door is closed, but not all the way, and the parents retreat downstairs.

Castle had gone down before her, so what Kate hits the end of the stairs and sees Castle on the phone; she assumes he's calling one of their favorite takeout places. She can hear him give the person on the other end their usual order, thank them and hung up.

"You know I love you right?" she asks stepping off the last stair and coming over to him. She wraps her arms around his chest and just stays thee for a minute, her eyes closed, just breathing him in.

"I know you do," he hugs her back. They stay like that for a minute, both needing a hug from the other.

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They are sitting on the couch watching TV when the doorbell rings, and Castle jumps up before it can go off again and wake up the babies.

He pays the delivery man and closes the door; a plastic bag in his other hand is full to bursting with yummy smelling Chinese food; _so_ much better than macaroni and hot dogs.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey Guys! WOW, thanks for all of the Reviews, Follows and Favorites! They really made me smile! I guess i should take that as a sign you all are glad i'm back? Anyway, here is chapter two and just like with the stuff in my other story: I am not a doctor, nor do i have CP and don't really know what they go through, but i try my hardest. Can we all agree to be nice if i mess something up? Kay, thanks!**

**Disclamor: Don't own them, and I'm not a doctor. That is all**

**Enjoy!**

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Tuesday

Party Countdown: 4 Days

It is utter pandemonium in the Castle household: Liam has bits of banana stuck in his hair, Miyana is crying because she heard her mommy was L-E-A-V-I-N-G, and Castle has misplaced the copy of the report Finn's therapists sent home from her last appointment the week before, and Kate needs to take it with her today.

"Are you sure it's not in your office? Because you lose things there all the time," Kate asks from the kitchen where she's trying to get the kids to eat their breakfast and not play with it.

"Yes I'm sure. I've looked there a hundred times," Castle calls back, frazzled and slightly angry at himself for misplacing it.

Kate sighs and runs a hand through her hair.

"Mia, it's going to be alright," she says again, trying to calm her daughter down. That girl is the epitome of a 'mommy's girl' and has Kate wrapped around her little finger. Normally she's fine with Kate or Rick leaving for work or errands or appointment but she has her days where all she wants is to be attached to her mom's hip and cries and cries when Kate leaves.

Kate picks her up out of her chair and hugs the girl close for a minute. Miyana's cries slow, but tears and snot still seep through her shirt.

"You're alright baby girl," Kate croons, rubbing her hand up and down Miyana's back. She kisses the crown of the baby's head, breathing in that baby smell.

Finally Miyana stops crying, but still has Kate's shirt stuck in her fist, the other thumb is firmly jammed in her mouth.

She might just have to take both Mia and Finn to therapy today if this keeps up.

It looked as if all of the kids were done with their food so Kate takes their plate's away, setting them on the counter by the sink to be cleaned up later. She wets a towel and wipes down their hands and faces, one by one. Miyana still clung to her side which makes getting the kids cleaned up harder than it should have been; but it kept her happy and quiet, so Kate dealt with it.

Once all five faces and ten hands were clean of bananas and syrup from their waffles she unclips them from their chairs, and sets each baby on the floor watching as they take off to play.

Kate walks into Castle's office, which has been turned into a war zone in the fifteen minutes since she had yelled at him to keep looking for that paper.

"Listen I'm going to go get Finn and possibly Miyana ready to go, and if you don't find it by the time we're done, I'm leaving without it," Kate says, hoisting the girls higher onto her hips.

She gets a muffled reply as Castle's head is stuck in the back of a drawer. She walks away, talking to the girls about their plans for the day and is out in the living room when she hears a bang and Castle cursing under his breath, but still loud enough for her to hear clearly without trying.

She doesn't have time to reprimand her husband on his language; they're on a tight schedule as it is.

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Sounds of baby babble and banging blocks fills the bedroom while Kate gets her daughters ready to leave. She decided to take Miyana with her to Finn's appointment because she didn't want to deal with another meltdown like the one at breakfast.

She dresses Finn first in jeans and a pink tee shirt that says 'I'm the _real_ boss of the family' on it. Kate pulls her daughter's hair into the smallest pig tails she has ever seen.

Once the girl is dressed, Kate lays her down on her stomach, on the floor, in the middle of a Boppy pillow they had saved from when the quints were babies. She moves a few toys closer to Finn then moves to get her sister ready.

Miyana struggles when the hairbrush is run through her hair. She didn't have it tied up during breakfast so syrup got stuck into the ends of her hair, making it hard to brush through.

"I know it hurts, but you have syrup in your hair, baby," Kate tells Mia who is still wriggling around, trying to get away from the evil hairbrush. She dressed similarly to her sister, except her shirt has _My Little Pony_ characters on it. It was an old shirt of Grace Ryan's that had wound up in a bag of hand-me-downs and Miyana got ahold of it and never let go. The only problem is: the shirt is four sizes too big, so it's more of a dress on the eleven month old, but she loves it so her parents don't argue.

"Alright, Mia, go get sissy, it's time to go," Kate says swinging Miyana down from the changing table and setting her on the floor.

Kate watches as the toddler walks over to her sister and taps her head, telling her without talking that it's time to leave.

Kate laughs and bends down to pick up Finn, who has a soft, dimpled smile on her face. "You're a good sister, Mia," she says looking down at her other daughter who is standing next to her mom's leg, still feeling a little clingy.

Together the group makes slow work of the stairs – one step at a time, but finally reach the bottom. They move over to the bar and Kate takes the owl backpack they use for the kids travel things, that is hanging off the back of one of the chairs and sets it on the counter. She looks through the bag, checking to make sure both girls cups are in there, they are, and pulls out a tri-folded piece of paper.

She unfolds it and laughs when she sees the neatly typed report from Finn's physical therapist.

"Hey Castle!" she calls and waits for her husband to appear at the doorway of his office. "Look what I found," she holds up the paper and Castle walks over and takes it from her.

He looks shocked, surprised and mad, but manages to squeak out a laugh. "Well I guess I'm more organized than I thought huh? I knew it was there the entire time, so I would remember to make sure you took it with you today."

Kate doesn't buy any of what he's saying and is shaking her head and throwing Castle all sorts of looks.

"Believe what you want, writer boy, but you didn't know where it was any more than I did."

"Hey, it is writer _man_. If you're going to say it, say it right."

Kate laughs and kisses his lips a second longer than necessary.

"We're leaving now. Miyana, come say bye to daddy, you're coming with me and sissy," Kate calls over to her middle daughter who is actually playing nicely with her brothers for once.

She looks up at her name, and runs over, but it's more of a fast walk than a run, and collides with Castle's legs.

Castle stumbles at the sudden, unexpected impact, but recovers quickly and scoops Mia up. He peppers her face and neck with kisses and a few raspberries until she's laughing. He kisses her cheek once more, before setting her on the counter and helping Kate get her shoes on.

Once everyone has coats, cloves, hats and shoes on the terror-some trio head out of the apartment and down to the parking garage.

Finally they are in the car, everyone buckled in and happily listening to Kate's shuffling iPod. The two girls in the backseat are trying to sing to the songs they know, but it only makes sense in their own baby language, all Kate hears is a constant stream of babbling from the two of them. But she gives them an 'A' for effort.

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Being born ten weeks early, all five of the Castle quintuplets were delayed in their development. They reached the normal baby milestones a few months later than kids the same age as them. Now like all kids they reached these milestones on their own timetables: Danielle was the first to roll over and sit up by herself, while Austin was the first of the five to walk on his own. The rest soon followed.

But by nine months old, while her other four siblings were crawling all over the place; Finn still hadn't rolled over or sat up by herself. Rick and Kate had known since she was born that there was something wrong with her. Even when she was in the NICU all of the tests and scans the doctors did on her brain came out abnormal, but the doctors told Finn's parents that they just needed time for her to grow and her brain would sort itself out on its own.

She came home with the same advice: her brain scans were still slightly abnormal, but the doctors still said to give it time, that things would sort themselves out.

Finally after months of Kate saying the same things over and over again to the kid's doctor, that there was something not right with Finn, someone actually listened to her.

Three months ago Finn Elizabeth Castle was diagnosed with a muscle disorder that falls under the broad umbrella of Cerebral Palsy. Her muscles are Hypotonic which means they have very low tone, which makes holding positions hard for her and things like sitting up and crawling and walking difficult as well. It affects the muscles in her legs and trunk and a little bit in her arms and hands, but those are the least affected.

As of right now she is going to physical (PT) and occupational (OT) therapy twice a week in order to help improve her muscle tone and movement. The OT is used to work with her on small movements like grabbing and holding onto things like cups and forks and playing with toys and using her hands. In the almost two months since she's been going to OT she has improved by leaps and bounds: she's using her hands more and can hold onto a cup and fork, the she hasn't quite grasped the whole' feeding herself' skill, but they're working on it. As far as physically, Finn needs a lot more work. Her therapist, Jason, is still trying to get her to sit up and crawl on her own. They will cross the walking bridge when they feel she's ready.

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Finn screamed and cried, she absolutely hated being stretched and moved in ways that didn't feel at all comfortable to her. She tried twisting and reaching for mommy, but she wasn't in the room. Her therapy teacher, Jason had asked Kate not to come in for a little while. He said they got more work done with Finn's mom not in the room to distract her and pick her up every time she cried.

"Finn, you are fine," Jason said sitting the girl up and setting her in the v of his legs. He puts Finn's legs in a 'V' like his and then moves her upper body forwards, backwards and side to side. He feels her trunk muscles activate and even watches as she holds out a hand to try and catch herself, should her teacher let go and she should fall.

She stopped crying and screaming, but is still whining and whimpering and protesting. She doesn't like being mucked with. She wants to be left alone to play.

Jason lets go and Finn sits up on her own again for two minutes like she did the previous night with her dad. She's improving, slowly. Every week it seems, Finn comes to her PT session and improves on something, even if it is small, it's still improving.

Take this particular session for example: two months ago Finn Castle wasn't even close to sitting up on her won, now she can do it for short amounts of time.

He wants to do one more thing before he lets Finn's mom come back in the room. Jason lays Finn onto her stomach and pushes a toy close to her. He watches as she tries to push up and hold her head up. This was the newest exercise he's done with her and just like sitting up; it's a slow improvement process. Every week her muscles get stronger and she can get a little further to playing with the toy.

After they have done the game of trying to get Finn to push up onto her hands a few times, Jason rolls the girl onto her back, hands her a toy to play with and goes to get her mom and sister who have come to watch this visit.

Jason tells Kate about everything they had done that day and reminds her to keep practicing with Finn, because the more she does the exercises, the faster she will reach her goals; which is easier said than done with four other kids at home to take care of, but as of right now, they have been doing a good job with working with Finn and taking care of the others.

Miyana and Finn are playing with each other and when Kate and Jason look up from their review of Finn's weekly report, they notice that Finn is lying on her belly, having rolled over from her back, a skill she can do quite well, her chin is in the carpeted floor and her arms are outstretched trying to get the toy her sister is holding in front of her.

Finn pushes up, like Jason was trying to get her to do earlier, for just a second and reaches out for the toy which Miyana hands over with a smile to her sister, as if in praise for what Finn just did.

Kate gasps and stands up, walking over to Finn and scooping her into her arms. She praises the girl and kisses her all over, laughing and jumping and getting excited. Finn laughs and puts her hands on her mom's face. Kate is so proud of her daughter.

"You did it Finn! You did it!" Kate praises, gathering up their things and getting the girls ready to leave.

"Mama," Finn says looking at her mom. "Up." She smiles, her eyes a light caramel, almost gold color in the light.

"That's right baby, you did get up. I am so proud of you," Kate says kissing her cheek and neck again.

The group of girls is standing by the front doors now, the receptionist working on setting up appointments for the next few weeks. They do this so Kate and Rick can organize their schedules to make sure one of them is always at Finn's appointments.

The woman at the desk hands Kate the paper with the dates on it, which Kate folds up and slips into the kids' bag.

"Alright girls, say good-bye," Kate prompts. Finn smiles wand waves at her 'friends.' To her everyone who works at the therapy office is her friend.

All of the people working behind the desk wave and say good-bye to both girls, though Miyana isn't waving; she got suddenly shy and is hiding in her mom's leg.

"Alright, see you guys later," Kate says, picking Mia off the ground and setting her on her hip. She pushes the handicap door opening button with her hip and waits for the door to open before walking out into the cold February air.

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It's become tradition since Finn started going to therapy that after her sessions, when Kate takes her, they stop off at a coffee shop for a treat. Kate gets another coffee as Finns appointments are usually early in the morning and Kate still needs something to get her going in the morning and she gets a donut hole for Finn. This time, however, she has to get two donuts for Finn and Miyana. Both girls love getting their special treat, anything they get that their siblings don't counts as a special treat.

Kate is sipping on her coffee and is pouring milk into the girl's cups when her phone vibrates on the table.

She unlocks the phone to check the six missed text messages she got once she left the doctor's office because her phone doesn't get reception in that place.

There is one from both Ryan and Esposito, one from Castle and two from Twitter. She checks the ones from Twitter first and laughs and the things the people she has on text alerts just said. Castle's text is asking what happened at Finn's appointment and Kate chooses not to respond, she'll tell him about it when she drops the girls off in a little while. The texts from Ryan and Esposito are asking when she will be at work to do her share of the paperwork from the now closed case.

Kate replies with a sarcastic comment about getting to it when she gets to it before locking her phone and slipping it into her jeans pocket.

"Alright, girls are you ready to go?" she asks both of her daughters.

They sign 'all done' and Kate knows they are ready. She wipes off their hands and faces, throws away their trash and puts on the girl's coats once again.

They walk out of the shop, where a nice high school girl with a giant backpack and a flute case holds the door for them. The girl makes faces and smiles at Miyana and Finn who respond with smiles and giggles of their own.

They part ways: they girl into the warmth of the shop and Kate and Kate and her daughters to the car to go home.

[] []

"She did good Castle," Kate says once their back home. The girls are playing with their brothers and sister and Kate is filling Castle in on when happened at Finn's appointment. "You should have seen her," Kate's eyes are full of pride and the memory of what the toddler did that day. "Jason says that we should just keep doing what we've been doing. That every time we work with Finn at home, it gets her one step closer to meeting those goals we set for her."

Castle nods. He knows the drill. They have heard the same thing twice a week for the last two months: keep working with her and give her lots of praise; she needs that.

"You should just stay," Castle says as Kate stands from her seat at the bar to get ready and leave for work.

She gives him a half smile but shakes her head. "I have to go in today. Paperwork. But I'll be home early again, promise."

He nods, stands and hugs her. She pulls back and kisses his lips.

He walks her to the door where she pulls on her coat, grabs her keys and purse and kisses Castle once more. They know Kate has a small window where she can sneak out before the kids notice and start to melt down. Usually if Kate leaves before the kids notice they don't usually throw a fit because they know mommy has to go to work and that she will be back later.

"Ok, I gotta go," she says, looking around for any signs of trouble brewing.

"Ok. See you later," he says kissing her once more before she walks through the door and down the hall.

He didn't notice that Danielle was standing thee until she call out "Bye bye mommy!" to Kate's retreating form. Castle smiles and picks up his daughter.

"That was really sweet, Dani," he says, closing the door as he walks back into the living room. "Come one, want to play with trains?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! Well here is chapter three. I don't have much to say other than thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites I've been getting, I really appreciate it! **

**Enjoy!**

**Oh! And if you feel so inclined, come follow me on Tumblr; I'm ALWAYS on there and we can talk and stuff. All of that information is on my profile. **

* * *

Wednesday

Party Countdown: 3 days

Her phone buzzes with another text message, and she has to use all of her will to not look at it. She knows what it is: Castle is sending her pictures and text messages about how their play group is going.

They had only been in this play group for a month, so it's fairly new to them and Castle is thrilled at how well the quints like playing with new friends, and it's a good excuse to get them out of the house for a few hours, especially since they are in the thralls of winter. The group meets once a week, usually at this indoor playground, but sometimes at the children's museum or at and actual park, depending on the weather.

She flips her phone over so the screen is facing her desktop and doesn't take her eyes off the slowly filling murder board.

Another team had caught a case late last night and Kate had been at work since the ass crack of dawn this morning to help out and taking over for the night crew.

She had checked on the quints before she left, they were still asleep and doing just fine, but hadn't seen them all day, and she desperately wanted to check her phone just to look at her kids faces.

God she was turning into one of _those _mothers.

Technically it was Karpowski's team's case, she was just helping out since they were up all night working it and needed fresh eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't on until nine?" Esposito asks coming into the bull pen and setting his cup of coffee on his desk before shrugging out of his jacket.

Kate pushes her hair back with a hand, shaking it out a little as her fingers slide through the copper mane. "I was, I am."

"Then why are you here?" Javi asks again, waving his hand at the word 'here.'

"Because I don't know how to say no," Kate says on a sigh.

"Why, what happened?"

"Karpowski called and asked if I would come and cover the last of her shift." At Esposito's look, she continues. "They caught a case around one and the whole team was exhausted. So I came to take over while they got a little sleep."

"Did you find anything?" Javi asks coming over to his partner and sitting on the corner of her desk.

"No. Not a thing. I've been looking at this evidence for so long, I'm starting to go crossed eyed." She smiles at the attempt at a joke.

"When are they supposed to come back?" He asked, looking up at the white board, trying to learn the case.

"Karpowski said by ten," Kate says, standing, hoping that the new vantage point will help her mind put together the puzzle pieces of the case.

She yawns, a big jaw cracking yawn and tries to cover it by putting a hand over her mouth. She grabs her mug and moves into the break room to get herself yet another coffee; her third this morning.

The first thing she sees in the lounge is Ryan Filling a cup with coffee.

"Hey," she says walking into the room. He partner jumps at her voice, spilling coffee onto the counter. "Sorry."

"It's fine." He's grabbing a handful of paper towels to clean up the mess.

"God Ryan, you look like hell," she says, watching him take large gulps of the hot coffee and seeing the moment the caffeine hits his system.

"Grace was up all night; Jenny and I didn't get much sleep." Kate feels for her friend, she really does. Especially now that she has kids, she knows what Ryan is going through.

"I'm sorry," she doesn't know what to say, but she hopes it will help in some small way.

"It's alright. Let's just hope no one gets killed today, I would like to get home early for once."

She laughs in agreement. They could all use and easy day and an early night.

They work in relative silence for an hour or so: the boys doing paper work on a case they worked without her and she's still mulling over Karpowski's case and cleaning off her desk top which somehow got covered in papers and pens and a mixed up pack of thirty two magic markers that she spends longer than possible putting back in the box in rainbow order.

"Hey Beckett!" she jumps at the voice, unexpected in the relative quiet of the bull pen. Karpowski's voice carries across the room, the Brooklyn accent something Kate has come accustomed too in the nearly ten years she's worked with the curly haired cop.

"Hey," Kate says, spinning in her chair to look at her friend. "I thought you weren't going to be back until later."

"It is later."

Kate has to close her eyes and nod. Obviously someone needs to get back to bed. For a month.

"You can go home if you want."

She wants to take Karpowski's offer, but she's well into her shift.

She has to make sure the boys are alright with it first.

She opens her mouth to speak, but before the sound leaves her mouth, Esposito talks first.

"Go; if we need you, we'll call."

Kate nods, but doesn't argue. She needs a nap. Besides, if the boys really need her, or a body drops, they will cal. She gather's up her stuff, ties the belt of her coat around her waist, shuts down her computer and exits the office.

[] []

She's not even two steps inside the loft when she's attacked at the shins by three tiny people shouting "Momma!" at her.

She slips off her coat, putting it and her badge and gun safe inside the closet, out of reach of tiny, curious fingers.

"Hello my loves," she says squatting down and accepting hugs and open mouthed kisses from three of her five kids. They make their way back into the living room turned play room, where the kids have managed to take out every single toy car, truck, train and machine they own and pile them on the coffee table.

"Boo!" Miyana shrieks, it's a surprise for her mommy.

"Boo?" Kate asks, picking her daughter up and tickling her stomach and sides until she's giggling hard and squirming to get out of her reach. "Wow you guys must have had some fun, huh?" she asks, setting  
Mia down and falling back into the couch.

Austin is curled into a ball with his blanket, his thumb stuffed into his mouth.

"Hey buddy, what happened?" she asks, scooping him into her arms. He starts to cry again, huge crocodile tears, his face getting as close to Kate's body as he can possibly get.

"Well Mr. Austin here decided it would be a good idea to do a Superman off the slide today at playgroup," Castle says coming into the room from the kitchen, tightening the lid on a cup for their hurt son. Kate calms Austin down enough to where she can get a good look at his face: he's got a fat lip and what looks to be remnants of a bloody nose, but other than that he looks fine. Kate knows it's usually your pride that gets hurt more than your body a lot of the time, and this looks to be the case.

Austin still wants to cuddle with his mom, and Kate doesn't object. She relishes in spending time with her kids, especially during the day when they are more or less happy and smiling and not getting ready for bed like she sometimes has to see.

"Did you get off early, or is it just me?" Castle asks sitting down next to Kate and Austin and throwing his arm over the back of the couch.

"No I'm still on call, but Karpowski came back early and the boys didn't need me so I left." He eyes her like she's a new species of animal the world has never seen before.

"Who are you and what have you done with Kate Beckett?"

"What do you mean?" she asks, shifting Austin so his heel is pressing into the couch and not her thigh.

"When I first met you, you practically lived in that precinct, and now you're at home with your kids even though you're supposed to be at work and doing something productive with your day."

"It's not like I'm sleeping or something like that, though a nap sounds like a good idea right now," at that her kids look up in sadness, their faces pouting at the thought of a nap. "No guys: not for you, for me," Kate says with a laugh. "Besides, I have my phone. If they need me, they will call."

She slides down the couch, taking her son with her. She curls into Castle's side, tucking Austin between her and the back of the couch. Castle lays a hand on her shoulder blade, protective and comforting, and watches as Kate's breath, smell and body heat lull Austin to sleep, just like when he was a baby.

He can tell Kate is asleep when her breathing evens out and she stops moving around like she does when she's right on the border between asleep and awake. He doesn't move his hand, just keeps it there and watches as his kids play in front of him.

[] []

"Hey. Kate," his voice is whispered, and she sees black when she opens her eyes. It takes a moment to register in her mind, but she finally realizes she's staring at the back of the couch, and turns her head to her husband.

"Hey," she says, stretching, uncurling her legs from the single spot they have been in since she fell asleep. "How long was I asleep?"

"About an hour. Listen, the boys called while you were asleep. They caught a case and texted the address to meet them. "

She sits up, an arm still on a sleeping Austin. "When was this?"

"About two minutes before I woke you up."

She sits up, shaking a hand through her hair, Austin, still asleep, is curled up next to her, his head on her thigh.

"And I got us a tour at that daycare if you still want to go," he says sitting down next to her.

"No, yea, I still want to go. When is it?"

"Tomorrow at one, is that ok?"

"Yea, I just have to do it on my lunch break. But that means I have to go help the boys on this case," she says standing and moving for the door. She stops halfway and looks around. "Where are the kids?" she asks noticing the lack of noise or movement in the room.

"In their beds, taking a nap," he replies from his seat on the couch.

She nods and moves for the stairs up to their quints room. She opens the door; a hand over it to make sure it's quiet and doesn't wake the sleeping babies. The only light in the room is what is coming in through the cracks in the curtains.

All four babies are asleep, their faces soft and relaxed, their mouths rosebud, each of them cuddling with their favorite lovey. She takes a minute to watch them sleep, but realizes she needs to leave if she's ever going to be able to leave tomorrow during lunch.

"They all ok?" Castle asks as she comes back downstairs and is putting her shoes and coat back on.

"They are fine," she says, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. She crosses the room and kisses him. "I'll be back later," she tells him, an unspoken reminder to make sure everyone stays safe and to not burn down the house.

"Be safe," he says, kissing her once more before she pulls away, grabs her purse, badge and gun and walks out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Thursday

Party Countdown: 2 Days

She pulls into the parking lot of the business front that looks exactly like the other ones on the street: brown brick, leafless trees in the front; but the cheery yellow marquee stuck in the grass in front of a winter dead bush makes the place seem more friendly than the others on the block, at least in the gloomy February weather.

Kate had come from the precinct and was on her lunch break, ignoring calls and texts from the boys about the case they were working on. She parks her Crown Vic and gets out, remote locking the door behind her. She makes her way up the walk, peering through the chain link fence at the two playgrounds, separated by another fence and a gate.

When she tries the front doors, they're locked and she stands there for a minute with her arms crossed over her chest until the lock clicks and she's able to open the door. The passes through a small atrium between the first and another set of doors, but the second don't appear to be locked.

The lobby of this daycare center, Vista Ridge, is bright and colorful; primary colors everywhere in the room. There's not much just a long counter with a computer at one end, a child sized table and chair tucked into a corner next to a small bookshelf with a few learning toys strewn over the tabletop. It reminds Kate of a doctor's office, but she knows to keep an open mind and to not judge a book by its cover.

There are two women sitting behind the counter: one with strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, and square framed glasses. She's old, her wrinkling skin gave that away, but her eyes are framed by laugh lines, and as Kate hears her talk over the phone, the woman has a soft, kind voice with an accent Kate can place. Maybe Georgia? Massachusetts? The other is Hispanic with dark brown, very curly hair and brown eyes. She, too, has glasses perched on her nose and is wearing a purple sweater with the sleeves rolled up and a white camisole peeking out from the v-neckline.

"Kate," she hears her name being called and turns towards Castle who is sitting on the benches the border the room. She smiles when she sees he's holding Miyana in his arms, big, puffy winter coat and all.

"Hey," she walks over to them, accepting Castle's kiss as he stands. "Hi Mia girl," she says taking the girl out of her dad's arms and smacking a kiss on her cheek, making Miyana giggle.

"Did you guys just get here?" Kate asks, slipping off Mia's pink coat before passing her back to her dad while she takes off her own.

"Yea, a few minutes before you did," he says handing the baby back after Kate has hung up all of their jackets on the hooks by the door. They sit back on the bench; Kate sets Mia on her lap facing her, straddling her thighs. Kate claps Miyana's hands together and makes funny faces; Mia smiles and laughs, her brown eyes colored green in the light, ever changing just like her mom's.

"Well security isn't very good; did you see how fast I got let inside?" Kate asks, still playing with her daughter.

"That's because I saw you from the window," Castle says pointing to the window to their right that looks out over the car park that Kate didn't even notice as she was walking up. "Besides, it's not like that here. The people at the desk know who to let in and who to be more cautious of. Trust me; they wouldn't let me in until I talked to them through the intercom outside. It's going to be alright; just relax."

Maybe she was over reacting. Maybe it was just the cop in here making her mind work on overdrive. She just wanted her kids to be safe if they went here; not saying that they will anytime soon. But this tour is important to Castle, she owes him one after the countless times he's understood her not making it home for dinner or bath time or having to leave so early she doesn't get to see him or her kids until very late at night. She just need to stop worrying, keep an open mind and relax. This is just to look, not to touch; as Castle would say.

Miyana starts to fuss, so Kate stands her up on her legs and bounces her, the change in eye level and movement refocussing the child's attention. Miyana holds onto Kate's shoulder and turns to face outward, wanting to see everything and not have her back to the room.

"Hello, it's good to meet Y'all," a short, stout woman with sun bleached wheat blonde hair pulled half up, bright blue eyes and a mild Tennessee accent says coming from an office space behind the desk, rounding the corner and walking up to the Castle family.

They all stand, Mia twisting her fist into Kate's shirt, and accept handshakes from the woman who introduce herself as Sherrie Schaefer. She and her husband Sergio are co-directors of the center and have an almost two year-old son, Wyatt, who is in the toddler program there.

"Hello, what's your name?" Sherrie asks Miyana who has shied away in her mom's arms, eyeing the new person. Sherrie smiles but doesn't press it any further, knows how shy little ones can be around new people or in unknown situations.

"This is Miyana," Kate introduces her daughter, hoisting her up higher in her arms. Sherrie smiles again and Kate already feels comfortable around her.

"Should we begin?" Sherrie asks, leading them back to the desk and the two women sitting there. "These are our secretaries, Helen and Susie, one or both of them are always at the desk. Next to them is our parent computer," they move to the lone computer on the counter. Their tour guide demonstrates, using her son's account, how parents would go about checking their child in and out. She tells them that Helen and Susie can see whatever the parent does and know who is in class and who is not. It also helps the kitchen staff know how much food to make.

Sherrie reaches over the desk and gathers up a stack of paper and packets. Information about the school, their current months' lunch menu, allergy information and that week's packet with each class and what they were doing in school that week.

"It says here that the infants are learning sigh language, do all the kids do it too, or just the babies?" Castle asks, flipping through all the pages of information.

"Oh, everyone learns it; from the smallest baby to our kiddos graduating pre-school. we've learned that when kids know sign, they have better communication skills later in life and when they are really small and can't tell us what is wrong or what they need, sign language helps them communicate and not get frustrated and throw a tantrum because they can't say what they need."

"It's funny because for a while now I've been teaching Mia and her siblings to sign. Nothing to fancy, just to DVD's you can get a Target and stuff," Castle says smiling.

"That's great!" Sherrie smiles and they continue walking out of the lobby, through another set of doors and into a long hallway that halfway down splits off into two more halls. "Now, in here are our offices, teachers' lounge and nurses office," Sherrie says pointing to a grape purple door with a pane of glass at the top.

"You guys have a nurse here?" Kate asks, shifting a fussing Mia in her arms.

"Yes we do have a registered RN with us every day, should the situation escalade to that but most of our medical needs are best solved with a Band-Aid and a hug from a teacher. All of our staff members are first aid and CPR certified."

Kate hands Mia off to Rick and they continue on with the tour. The hall has tons of the kid's artwork hanging up, and the next door they stop at has lights on with a class inside.

"This is our music room. Every class comes here once a week where they play games, sing songs and learn instruments. We have two music performances a year: once in the winter, before Christmas and once in the spring, about the end of May." Sherrie opens the door and steps inside the room, Castle, Beckett and Mia follow her; she says her apologies to the teacher for interrupting her class. A little boy with short brown hair, freckles and wearing jeans and a long sleeve Mike the Knight shirt, runs up to Sherrie and hugs her around her legs before going back to his class. They watch for a few minutes more before quietly walking out.

"Who was that little boy?" Castle asks, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"That was my son, I knew I could interrupt his class and not cause trouble," Sherrie says winking and smiling at Kate who giggles. They walk some more, coming to the crossing of the halls, where Sherrie leads them left.

"Down this side are our youngest kids: the Infant and Toddler rooms. The Infants are six weeks old to a year old, and then it's the Toddler One class which is one year to eighteen months old. The Toddler Two rom is eighteen months to two. Every class has a color: the Infants are Red, Toddler Ones are Orange, Toddler Two's are yellow; it goes in rainbow order all the way up to Pre-School two. It helps our office staff keep track of every kid and it also helps the older students find their teacher or class room, they just look for the matching color. Our toddler classes' sort of bleed together in terms of kids moving between the two, that's why we put them next to each other so that when we and the parents feel their child is ready to move up to the next class, they can slowly transition into the class and not get thrown into the deep end before they're ready. They peek into each classroom, starting at the end on the hall with the Infants. It's not very interesting as everyone is taking a nap, but it gives them a chance to see what the classes are like and how it runs.

The 'older' three classes on the right side of the hallway are not sleeping like the younger kids and it gives Rick and Kate a better look at what a class does during the rest of the day. The two and three year old class, the 'Preppers,' are busy sitting at tables working on a project involving giant pieces of construction paper and sponges with different colors of paint on them. In the next room, the Pre-School One class was in the middle of circle time, the teacher had them all sitting on the carpet and they were going through a calendar learning the day of the week and the months of the year.

"Do they do this every day?" Castle asks, looking through the window at the kids sitting down and listening to their teacher.

"Mmhmm, every class from Toddler Two have circle time every day," Sherrie replies. "And the classes in this hall also have workbooks they use. The Preppers do one page a week, the Pre-School One kiddos do one page a day and the Pre-School Two kids do two a day. The pages aren't anything special, just things like letters, numbers, colors, reading and math skills and writing. We've noticed that our kids go into Kindergarten already knowing how to read basic words and how to write their names. It puts them ahead of their peers in that aspect," Sherrie leads them further down the hall to the oldest class. There is music playing out of a boom box and a songbook open on an easel. No one is sitting however; they are all dancing around the class room and singing along to the song as best they can.

"This is part of the phonics program we use," Sherrie explains, as they stand and watch a little while longer. "Every letter of the alphabet has a character and song associated with it. Every week they learn a new letter and in turn meet a new friend and learn a new song."

Kate nods; it's pretty cool how they make learning fun and not a chore, especially since they are dealing with little kids who want to play more than sit still and do worksheets. But they have been doing this for a long time, nearly twenty years, so they're the experts in that aspect, not her.

They make quick work of the last are of the school as Miyana is fading fast and it's a matter of time before she fully melts down. Kate knew that having her skip a nap to come here was a bad idea, but Castle swore she would be fine; if Mia throws a tantrum here, she's blaming him.

Twenty minutes later Castle, Beckett and a half asleep Miyana, who didn't throw a fit like her mom thought, left the daycare center with a pile of information in their hands and an open invitation offered to them by Sherrie and Sergio to come to any of the events they were having for the rest of the school year, and the hope to see the rest of the Castle kids in the fall.

Kate walks her husband and daughter out to their car, and waits while Castle puts a sleepy Miyana into her car seat. While he's doing that, Kate checks her cell phone as she kept it in her pocket during their tour, and sees three missed text messages from her boys.

"Well that's good," Kate says, locking her phone after reading the messages and slipping it back into her jeans pocket.

"What?" he asks, wanting to know what the text said.

"Apparently Gates is letting everyone home early, it's supposed to snow hard tonight and she wants everyone home before the roads get too bad."

"It's sad to see your boss take such concern in the safety of her people," Castle remarks sarcastically to which Kate can only roll her eyes and smack his arm lightly.

"So, I'll meet you at home?" she asks, slowly moving to her car.

"Why not just follow us there?" he asks, following Beckett around his car and he opens the driver's side door.

"Because I thought I was coming back to work, so I left all my stuff there," Kate replies, still standing in the middle of the parking lot.

"We'll stop there first so you can get your stuff and then go home," Castle offers.

"But what about," Kate nods towards the back seat where a sleepy baby sits.

"She's halfway asleep; the drive will probably put her all the way out."

"Ok, let's go," Kate agrees and turns for her own car which is freezing from having been sitting outside for the past almost two hours. She leaves first, and watches out of rear mirror and Castle and Mia follow behind.

[] []

"Hey, how was the tour?" Martha asks from her spot on the couch.

Castle, Beckett and a cranky, sleepy Miyana come through the door of the loft, dropping off coats, hats, gloves and bags on the entry table.

"I'll go put her down," Castle says taking his daughter off her mom's hip and setting her in his. "Come on Mia girl."

Kate locks her badge and gun safe in the closet before joining her mother-in-law on the couch. The leather squeaks as Kate shifts around, trying to get comfortable.

"It went very well," she answer's Martha's question. "The people there were very nice, the classes looked amazing. All the kids there seemed very happy." She smiles, it was very good tour. She didn't know what to expect walking in the security system locked front doors, but inside she fell in love in the first seconds.

The owners, Sherrie and Sergio were very nice and all the kids there liked them and they seemed to be friends with them all, knowing each one by their first names.

"So, what was the problem?" Martha questions, noticing Kate's contemplative face and the silent doubt and questions racing through the detectives mind.

"Nothing," Kate replies, hoping the actress will drop the subject; give her some time to think.

"Darling, I know nothing, and that face is not a face of nothing. What's the matter?" Martha sits up and puts a hand on Kate's thigh.

"It's just – "

"So, Miyana is down, the other kids are fine," Rick says as he descends the stairs from checking on the babies who are supposed to still be napping.

Perfect timing honey.

"So, what were your girls talking about?" Castle asks coming around the couch and taking the empty spot.

"Well Katherine was telling me about your little outing and I noticed she was looking a little sullen and I asked her what was wrong, and she was just about to tell me when you walked in," Martha replies to her son, casting a look over to Kate.

Castle smiles at Kate, knows she wasn't one hundred percent about going to look at that daycare center today, but he wanted too, so she went.

"Just to look, Kate," he says, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "So, mother, how were they?" He asks, changing the subject, much to Kate's relief.

"They were fine. All finished lunch after you and little Mia left. Then we played for a while. Did you know you kids love to dance? We were listening to music before their nap and they were all dancing and trying to sing. They just might have a future in the theater, you should foster this."

Kate laughs. Her kids do love music and dancing. It's always fun to turn on the radio and dance around with her kids, just be silly for a little while.

"Well I should be going. I have plans later on and need to get ready," Martha says standing. She grabs her coat from the closet and a minute later she's gone.

Castle sighs and his head lolls onto the back of the couch.

"Long day," he says, a hand reaching over and taking Kate's foot that she subconsciously tucked under her bottom as she sat down. She jumps at the sudden touch, the bottoms of her feet sensitive.

"You can say that again," Kate replies, fiddling with a strand of hair that fell out of her up-do.

"What's for dinner?" Castle asks, sounding more like a six year old and less like a grown man.

"I don't know, what are you making?" Kate asks, looking at her husband out of her peripheral vision.

Castle groans something that sounds like 'I don't wanna get up,' and Kate laughs again.

"Alright here's the plan, we'll rest here until the kids wake up, but then it's time to think about dinner, Okay?"

"Okay," Castle replies.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Well we're almost done with this little adventure. Don't worry, there will be more to come; I'm not down with you guys just yet. I just wanted to say thanks for sticking with me and I hope you will keep with it.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, but you already knew that, didn't you?**

* * *

Friday

Party Countdown: 1 Day

"God it's cold out there," Max Foster said as he slid into the driver's seat of his hand me down 2005 Mazda. He turned the key in the ignition, trying to warm up the car as fast as possible.

"You had to park in the furthest spot from the lab, didn't you?" His girlfriend Alexis Castle asked getting in beside him and pulling her seatbelt across her chest.

"I told you, it was the only spot I could find," Max said for what felt like the twentieth time since they left their anatomy lab.

"So you say," she teased taking her boyfriend's still gloved hand in hers.

"Babe!" he shouted, turning to look at Alexis.

She laughs and smiles, her whole face lighting up. He likes that; likes when she smiles.

"Relax, I know how hard it is to find a parking spot in bad weather," she says turning and placing a light kiss on his lips.

He turns forward and puts the car into drive, turning into traffic.

The huge snow storm that had been predicted the night before had amounted to nothing more than a light dusting, but it was cold enough that all the schools in the city and its surrounding areas had been put on a two hour delay as did most city run businesses like the NYPD.

"So, am I still dropping you off at your dad's house before my shift starts?" Max asks his girlfriend as he drives from their school uptown to the hospital where they work and Alexis' dad's apartment downtown. Both he and Alexis are medical students, he a third year, she a second, as such they both have to work their fair share of shifts in a hospital in various departments.

"Yes, please," she replies, looking out the window at all the poor unfortunate people that have to walk through the streets in this cold weather. "Are you sure you can't come up for a little while before you leave? The kids would love to see you." she asks, turning back to Max.

She's speaking of her five younger siblings; quintuplets that are about to celebrate their first birthday. He and Alexis had been together for quite some time before her dad's wife, Kate, got pregnant with the kids last year, so he had already been told the stories about Alexis' family and how complicated it was. So when they babies were born, it was just another part of his girlfriend's family he would need to get used to. He likes the kids just fine, is used to being around little kids as he has a very large family: two sisters and a brother, a bunch of aunts and uncles and more cousins than he can count sometimes. It seems in his family _someone_ is pregnant or just had a baby. He even formed a sort of bond, or a friendship is a better word, with the quints since they were really little. He had almost no choice as Alexis spent a lot of her free time when they were very little over at her dad's house helping him and Kate out in every way she could, and he wanted to spend time with his girlfriend when he wasn't working or in class, so he was with Alexis helping out a lot.

"Maybe for a few minutes, but I can't be late again or Benton will shoot me," Max says, speaking of his current attending.

"Ok, cool" Alexis smiles and nods.

[] []

They park in the underground lot at Alexis' dad's building and ride the elevator up. Max can tell before Alexis opens the door that Rick and Kate have had one of _those _mornings. He looks at Alexis and she simply gives him a quick nod before turning her key in the lock.

"Hey, we're here!" Alexis shouts, walking into the apartment.

All five babies are sitting in their high chairs at the table: two are crying, the other three are playing with their breakfast, getting more of it on their bodies than in their mouths, and there is a puddle of what looks to be spilled orange juice on the floor under the table.

Both med students toss their coats over the back of the couch and move into the kitchen to help a very frazzled looking Rick Castle. Alexis quickly moves the bowls of yogurt and plates of cut up waffles away from the five one year olds and sets them of the counter. Rick then comes by with a wet rag and wipes down all of the babies hands and faces. Then Max takes them out of their chairs and moves them into the living room where he, hopefully, can keep them happy and occupied while the other two finish cleaning up. It's an unspoken plan, but somehow everyone knows their part and jumps right in.

"Hey now, Nemo, what is with all the tears, huh? What happened to my happy Finn?" Max asks the youngest girl as he picks her up out of her high chair and sets her on his hip.

The nickname originally came from 'Lucky Finn,' from when the babies had just come home from the hospital. Finn was still the smallest and having to fight ten times harder than the others, and still she grew and stayed strong. She was everyone's lucky charm, their 'Lucky Finn.' They realized that if Finn could do the things the doctors said she never would be able to do, then anything that came up they could get through because Finn did it. Since then the name has been changed to Nemo, like the animated fish, and it's stuck, probably when Finn was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, the fish has problems with his legs, just like Finn; it's a perfect comparison.

Finn stops crying, but is still pouting when Max sets her on the floor with the others and turns to go help Alexis and her dad. He's walking back into the kitchen when Kate comes running out of her bedroom, the zippers of her boots undone and trying to clasp her other earing.

"Castle, I'm late!" she calls all the way across the great room stopping at the counter where Rick has set out something quick for her to eat as she runs out of the door on her way into work.

"How are you late?" Alexis asks, almost teasing. "You had a two hour delay."

"I had to take a shower," Kate replies quickly.

"I'll bet you had to take a shower" Rick says under his breath. Unfortunately Alexis heard him just fine. She stares at her dad, thinks about it for a second, and then makes a face.

"Ew, dad I did _not_ need to know that" Alexis says walking away from her dad and step-mom. Max misses most of that conversation but catches on quickly at his girlfriend's last comment. She joins Max on the floor and starts playing with the babies.

Everyone goes about their own activities for a while: Max and Alexis are playing with the babies, Rick is finishing cleaning the kitchen and Kate is finishing eating breakfast.

"I have to go," Max says looking at his cell phone and sitting up from lying on his belly and letting the babies crawly all over him like a human jungle gym. He pulls Austin off his back where the little monkey was hanging around his neck and sets him back on the floor before standing. He bends down and kisses Alexis and Miyana in her lap, moves around the couch and shrugs on his coat. "Bye guys!" he calls to the collective family moving to the door.

"Bye babe!" Alexis calls to him. "See you before my shift starts."

"Alright, see you then," he says opening the door and walking out with one last 'bye.'

Kate leaves soon after Max looking a little less frazzled than she did when Alexis first arrived at her dad's house.

[] []

"Ok so, what are we doing?" Alexis asks her dad from her spot on the couch next to him as they watch the babies play with their many toys.

"Wait right here" Rick starts, getting up and moving into his office. He comes back a minute later four shopping bags in his hands. He takes the bags to the dining table and proceeds to dump them out.

Little toys and candy come tumbling from the bags and land on the table or the floor around it.

Alexis gets up and walks over to the table, picking up a toy car off the floor. She gives her dad a look, the car still in her hand.

"The only thing left to get ready for the party tomorrow is to make the goodie bags for the kids that are coming. I promised Kate I'd get them done before this weekend and I've procrastinated too long," he tells his daughter.

"So you asked me to come over today to help you make these?" she asks picking up the pack of miniature plastic bags with party balloons covering them.

"Basically, yes," he nods.

"Well how many do we have to make?"

"Just eight or ten. There are not too many kids coming; just the kids from our playgroup, and even then it's just the few over the age of two."

"And what about them?" Alexis points to the five kids that for the time being are playing nicely but she knows it probably wouldn't be for long.

"Ah they'll be fine."

So the two get to work filling the gift bags. It takes them longer to get started than to actually do the thing because they have to separate each group of stuffing out into their individual groups instead of one giant pile. But forty five minutes later, they are done. The kids did well, but towards the end of the project they started getting mad they didn't have their dad and sister's undivided attention.

"Alright, let's play," Alexis says to Liam who had been hanging onto her pant leg for the past ten minutes. She scoops him into her arms and carries him over to his toys.

Alexis starts the game of crashing two of the boys' Hot Wheels cars into each other which makes them howl with laughter.

"So about tomorrow," she starts after a minute of trying to come up with the right words to say.

"MmHmm?" her dad replies from where he's building a puzzle with Finn.

Alexis starts and stops herself a few times, scared by what her dad might say. "There's something I need to tell you."

[] []

She finds her boyfriend at the desk in the middle of the Psych ward. He's filling out a chart and had his stethoscope wrapped around his neck; it looks cute.

"Hey," she says, standing beside him and leaning on the counter.

He looks up from his chart and looks at her for a second before looking down again. "Hey. How did it go?"

"Well I told him. He didn't take it very well though," Alexis says following Max down the hall to his next patient.

"Did you explain that it wasn't you fault? That your attending is an ass hole?"

"MmHmm," she murmurs. "But he was still mad. I mean I would too if I were in his position."

Max stops, turns and hugs Alexis around her waist, giving them both a minute to catch their breaths.

"You didn't do anything wrong" he tells her, arms still around her waist.

'Then why does it feel that way?" she asks, pulling back so she can see into his eyes.

"Because you know how much this meant to your dad and Kate and you feel like your letting them down by not being there. You should feel bad though," He hugs her again. "it's just things like this happen sometimes, and yea they suck, but it's not the ned of the world. I bet you by this time next year those kids aren't even going to remember you didn't make it to their first birthday party."

"Yes, until they see the pictures and notice I'm not in any of them," Alexis replies.

"But then their parents will show them the pictures from the following weekend the night of their actual birthday and they will see you in almost every one of those pictures and they will know that you love them more than anything, and one missed birthday party isn't going to change that."

She has to smile. He's right: it's just one missed party and she promised to spend the following Saturday, the quints actual birthday with her family. It's just like Max said: By this time next year, they won't even remember that their big sister missed their birthday party. It will be a thing of the past.

"Alright I've got to get back and," Max looks down at his watch, "Your shift starts in fifteen minutes, so you have to go too." He leans down and kisses her. "I'll come find you before I leave alright?"

"Yea," Alexis nods. She kisses Max once more before turning and leaving the unit. She rides the elevator up two floors to the pediatric unit. She checks in at the desk before going into the break room and putting her coat and bag into her locker. She fixes her white lab coat, puts her own stethoscope around her neck and heads out onto the floor for rounds.

[] []

Later that night everyone in the Castle household was home and in bed. The kids were asleep and the parents were getting close.

In the dark Castle sighed. He turned on his side and tried to fall asleep, but his wife spoke up before he got very far.

"Are you still mad about Alexis not being able to come tomorrow?"

"How could she do this? I mean she knew about the party three weeks in advance, she could have made arrangements to have tomorrow off or something," he replied, turning to his back and looking at the ceiling.

"But Castle you also have to remember she's a med student. She's on the bottom of the totem pole, she not going to get days off a lot, she doesn't have enough authority to do that."

"I know!" he snaps. He stops for a second, takes a breath. "I'm sorry, I'm just mad. I wanted her to be here tomorrow. It's her little brothers and sisters party; a celebration of how we _all_ survived their first year. She was here a lot and helped out so much, I just wanted her to have this moment to tell her I appreciate all those times."

"And what, have her spend all afternoon at a one year olds birthday party is going to make her see that? Castle she knows all of that; knows how much we love her and appreciate her. She doesn't need a party to remember that. Besides I bet she feels just as bad about not being able to come." She rolls over and kisses her husband with a smile. He nods, slowly coming out of his emotions. "Let's go to bed, huh? Big day tomorrow," she says, kissing him once more.

"Love you," he tells her.

"I love you too.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I have more at the end.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine! I promise!**

* * *

Saturday

Party Countdown: Zero days

Saturday dawned sunny, but cold. The forecasted weather for the quints birthday party was sunny and a sweltering forty-three degrees.

Kate had just come out of the shower when Castle pokes his head in their room.

"Hey, Kate, I'm going to go pick up the cake, alright?" He asks, moving his leg to stop little people from coming into their room.

"Castle, can you wait? I still have to get dressed?"

"I'll be quick, I promise," he said, not really answering Kate's question. He turned away from the door before Kate could answer. He put keys, his wallet and cell phone into his pockets then went into the closet for his coat.

Austin came over to the coat closet; he wanted to know why his daddy was leaving and not playing cars with him.

"Buddy, I have to get your birthday cake," Castle said, sliding the coat over his shoulders. Austin stood there watching Castle. "Do you want to come with me?" Castle asked after a minute.

Austin started babbling away and reached to be picked up. Castle scooped him up and slid his blue jacket onto the baby. Austin wasn't dressed yet, but Castle didn't mind; it wasn't like they were going somewhere fancy. Just to the grocery store.

"Kate I'm taking Austin with me; we'll be back in a few," he called to Kate. He cracked open their room door a little more so Kate could hear the kids. He and Austin left the loft before anyone else noticed what they were doing.

[] []

"Alright Austin, let's get this done and get home to mommy," Castle said to his son as he set him in the cart, buckling him in. They went straight to the bakery to pick up the kids birthday cake.

"Hi, I'm Richard Castle, I believe I have a cake to pick up?" He asked the man at the counter.

"Of course, let me just go check in back," the man said. Castle watched the man walk away and he had to laugh as Austin waved 'bye-bye' to him.

"Don't worry buddy, he'll be right back," Castle said ruffling his son's hair.

"Would he like a cookie?" One of the girls working in the bakery asked Castle. She held out a tray of sugar cookies that they give out to kids.

"Um, sure, thanks, Castle said, taking a cooking for Austin and one for himself. He smiled at the girl and she smiled back, waving at Austin who was too busy eating his cookie to notice the girl.

"Alright, here we go," the man came back with the cake in a white box. "Check to make sure this is yours," the man advised, peeling off the pink order form taped to the box.

It was a swirled chocolate and vanilla cake with white icing on top. It was decorated with balloons in every color of the rainbow and in the center it said 'Happy Birthday Danielle, Liam, Miyana, Austin and Finn.' All of the kids' names were in their color: pink, blue, purple, red and green.

"Look good," Castle said smiling. He stuffed the last bite of his cookie into his mouth before taking the cake from the man and setting in in the cart. "Alright, how much do I owe you?" He paid for the cake and a minute later he and Austin were moving through the rest of the store.

They just had to pick up a few things like a pack of diapers because they were running low; they would have to get to Sam's soon. He also grabbed a pint of ice cream to eat with the cake.

A minute later they were in the checkout line and the lady bagging their groceries was totally flirting with Austin, to which the baby flirted right back; it was a sight. Once all of the groceries had been put into bags and back into the cart and Austin stopped batting his long eyelashes, the father-son duo made their way out on the store and into the parking lot.

[] []

"Hey! There you are!" Kate called to Austin as he toddled through the door in front of his dad who was loaded down with three shopping bags and a birthday cake.

"Mama!" Austin called running over to his mom and colliding with the couch. Kate laughed and scooped him up, blowing raspberries into his neck, making him giggle.

"Did you have fun with daddy?" she asked.

"Daddy," Austin said simply; no other explanation than that. Kate stood up, Austin sliding down to the ground and walking, and walked into the kitchen. She half sat on one of the stools at the bar and looked through the plastic on the box at the cake.

"Wow, they did a good job," she said looking up at Castle as he put away his haul.

"I told you, sometimes these guys are ten times better than some professionally made cake," he said still moving around the kitchen.

"Well let's hope it tastes as good as it looks," Kate said pushing the box away from the edge of the counter; she didn't want it falling on getting pushed off and ruined.

"Should we start getting them ready?" Kate asked. "I mean the party is going to start in two hours."

"Yea, go ahead and get them dressed, I'm sure they can't get _too_ dirty in two hours," Castle said laughing.

Kate smiled and stood from her seat. "Alright, come on, let's go get dressed," she called over to her kids. She walked over and picked up Finn who was smiling like she almost always is. "Come Liam. Austin, let's go," she said to her son as her other two girls were already going up the stairs. Liam followed his mom and sisters, but Austin stayed, playing with his toys.

"Austin, go with mommy," Castle called to his son. Austin looked up and held out a car to his dad. "Yes you can bring your car with you," Castle said, motioning for Austin to come; the boy did and started on the stairs, his dad watching as he went up, making sure he didn't fall.

While Kate was upstairs getting the kids cleaned up and dressed, Castle busied himself getting the downstairs ready for the party. He put all of the toys in their bins, knowing full well they were all going to be taken out anyway. He picked up loose paper and just straightened everything up, making it look presentable.

Once everything was cleaned up, he went back to the kitchen and made giant pitchers of lemonade and iced tea for the people who weren't drinking alcohol, and the kids, to drink. He brought out bags of chips and dip, setting them on the counter un-opened, as it was too early for them to be opened. He also set out and fruit and veggie tray for some more munchies.

Finally everything was ready and Rick Castle was able to sit on his couch and look through his social media accounts for a few minutes before things started getting crazy.

"Alright, Daddy, you ready?" Kate called from the top of the stairs. He could tell she had put up the gate, otherwise the kids would already be down here.

"I'm ready," Castle called, sitting up.

Kate opened the gate and followed the four others with Finn in her arms. They all made it down the stairs and took off the second their feet hit the ground.

Miyana peeked around the couch and smiled at her dad, her hazel eyes sparkling.

"Oh Miyana, don't you look pretty," Castle said to his middle daughter. Mia smiled, folding her hands together on her belly.

"Dada!" Liam said running up and head-butting Castle's leg. Rick grunted with the impact but recovered quickly.

"Liam, my man, mommy did a good job on you huh? Hey, go get your sunglasses," he told the boy who ran off to find his favorite pair of glasses.

Kate had spiked both boys hair up and dressed them in jeans and special made t-shirts. Alexis' best friend Paige, who works at a graphic design firm in the city, made all five kids shirts to wear on their birthday. The boys' shirts are blue and say either 'Birthday Boy Austin' or 'Birthday Boy Liam' on them in white 'letterman jacket' font.

"Dada!" Liam called, coming back around the coffee table with his tiny, plastic aviator sunglasses in his hands.

"Oh you found them!" Castle said to his son, taking the glasses and placing it over the toddler's eyes. "Say cheese," Castle directed, holding up his phone camera and snapping a quick picture of his son. "Very cool," he said to Liam who smiled, the dimples in his cheeks appearing. Castle quickly attached the photo to a post on his Twitter account with the caption 'Too cool for my first birthday.'

Miyana, not wanting to miss out on being in a picture, the little actress that she is, pushed her brother out of the way and stood in front of her dad with a smile, ready for him to tale her picture.

"Miyana, we don't push," Kate scolded, not feeling like doling out punishment to her daughter, especially on her birthday.

"Alright Mia, you're turn," Castle said holding up his phone again and snapping another picture. He didn't post this photo online, wanting to not spam his Twitter followers just yet; he'll wait until after the party to do that.

All of the girls were wearing matching pick shirts that had "Birthday Girl' and then their name written in neat cursive across the front of their shirts. On bottom they were wearing grey leggings with stars and moons all over them and a layered pink and purple tutu over top. Kate had pulled all of the girls' hair into tiny pig tails; they looked really cute.

By now the other kids had seen their siblings getting their pictures taken and they wanted in on the action. So in the forty minutes before the party was supposed to start, the Castle family had an impromptu iPhone photo shoot. Even the parents got in on the action, snapping pics with their kids and a few with each other.

In the middle of their picture session, the doorbell rang. Kate got up to answer it and smiled when she saw her dad on the other side.

"Dad, you're early!" Kate said, inviting her father inside. Jim came inside, taking off his coat and the present her brought for the kids. He put the present on the table on the back of the couch and tossed his coat over one of the bar stools.

"Well I figured you guys could use some help," Jim said hugging his daughter. "Hello Rick," he said looking over at Castle who was taking a picture of himself with Danielle hanging onto his shoulders 'piggy-back' style.

A second later Danielle forgot all about the pictures and instead wanted to be with her grandpa. She slid off the couch on her belly and walked over to Jim, reaching and whining to be picked up.

Jim scooped up the girl and hugged her close. The two were as thick as thieves, a bond that Kate had only seen once: the bond between Castle and Alexis.

"Do you want something to drink? The party isn't going to start for a while," Kate said to her dad who had taken over a spot on the couch and was playing with his grandchildren, trying to make them laugh.

"No I'm fine, thank you," Jim said smiling over his shoulder to his daughter. Kate took a breath trying to remind herself that today was supposed to be fun and to not stress out so much. She joined her family on the couch and played with them for the last few minutes before the party started.

[] []

The party was in full swing. Everyone was talking and eating and drinking, the kids were running around playing with the quints toy bin or sward fighting with the glow sticks that were in their goodie bags. Castle had ordered Chinese take-out so that he and Kate didn't have to think about cooking and everyone would be able to eat _something_ on the food table.

All of Castle and Beckett's friends from work were there, even Captain Gates came bye for a few minutes to drop off a card and say happy birthday to the quints.

Everyone brought gifts for the kids, even though they have more toys than nay baby should and enough clothes to fit three closets.

When the doorbell rang again, Kate broke away from her conversation with Lanie and Jenny to answer it. She had Miyana on her hip, the little girl not liking all the commotion the party caused, but felt better in her mom's arms.

"Max, hey," Kate said to Alexis' boyfriend. She let him in and he smiled at Mia, trying to get her to laugh.

"I can't stay long, just wanted to drop this off," he said holing up the gift bag in his hand. "I know Alexis wanted to be here too, but we both drew the short straw and have to work a thirty-six hour shift at the hospital," Max said to Kate, the two still stand in the entryway.

"I know she did, but she and I both know that school is important; she would have been here if could," Kate said. "Castle, Max is here," she called over to her husband who was engaged in a glow stick sword fight with one of the kids in the quints playgroup

He stood up and came over to Kate and Max. the two men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

"Do you want to stay for some cake? We were getting ready to do it," Castle asked Max who looked at his phone for the time.

"Um, sure I'd love too," he said smiling.

"Great!" Castle said, turning around to round up his kids. He set them all in their chairs, after taking off their nice birthday shirts so they didn't get ruined when the babies tried to get the cake into their mouths and instead ended up putting it through their chests or stomachs.

Word spread quickly that cake was coming soon, and everyone crowded around the dining table, surround the quints booster seats.

Kate brought over the cake, setting it in front of her five babies. She stuck in a candle for each of them to blow out and with Castle and a few others manning the camera for both video and picture, she lit the candles.

"Okay, ready?" Kate asked looking up. She caught eyes with Castle and he smiled at her, his blue eyes shining. "One, two, three," she counted off and everyone began singing.

"Happy birthday to you; happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Danielle, Liam, Miyana, Austin and Finn. Happy birthday to you!"

Kate blew out the candles and everyone cheered and snapped pictures. The babies were all smiling and clapping and looking around at all of the people who came to celebrate their birthday. Kate moved the cake back to the kitchen counted and started cutting pieces. She gave the first pieces to Grace Ryan and all the little kids from playgroup. They were pawing at her leg for some of the sweet and Kate had to laugh through the tears springing up in her eyes; this was what she had to look forward to: five kids pawing at her for attention or to show her something they did in school or at and activity or trying to be the first to get dinner or – or a piece of their birthday cake.

She brought cake over to her kids, tears still in her eyes. She didn't know why she got so emotional all of a sudden; maybe it was seeing all of the people in the room who love her family and, for most of them, she feels the same way. Or maybe it was the fact that her babies weren't 'babies' anymore; they were toddlers, walking, talking toddlers. The little bean shaped things growing in her belly; the same bean shaped things she too all sorts of fertility drugs for, who made her stay in bad for all those days and weeks; the tiny babies sleeping in incubators in the NICU, fighting for their lives every second of every day.

The still tiny babies that she brought home one by one; the sleepless night of those horrible first few months. The same five babies who she watched roll over, sit up, walk, eat from a fork and spoon, graduate from bottles to sippy cups.

Her babies were growing up to fast and it just hit her all of a sudden.

She set the cake in front of her kids and watched as they dug in. every one of them eating in different ways. Austin stuck a finger in first, getting a tiny taste of the un-known treat, but once he who it tasted good and he liked it, he stuck his whole hand in, getting large chunks of the cake. Danielle just dived right it, smearing it all over her face, having fun with her food. Liam was more cautious than his twin and took smaller bites, but still liking the cake. Miyana, the little princess, didn't want anything to do with getting her hands dirty, but loved the cake when her dad fed some to her from a spoon. Finn loved both the taste and texture of the cake: everything she took a bite she had to rub the piece through her hand first; she got messy very quickly.

All of the guests watched as the babies ate their first birthday cake, as they ate their own pieces. Video was still being taken; pictures were being snapped. The party went back to its reserved chaos; everyone was happy.

[] []

By the time the majority of the guests left three hours later, the quints were done. They had hit their wall and were ready for some quiet time, and possibly even a nap. Kate and Castle took the kids upstairs to bed while the others: Jim, Martha, Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, Jenny and Grace stayed downstairs and finished cleaning up.

When the parents came back downstairs a while later, the only things left to do was take out the trash and wash a few dishes.

"Wow you guys are the best," Kate said reclaiming her spot on the couch.

"It's the least we could do for everything you've done," Ryan said smiling.

"Oh god, Ryan, you're going to make me cry," Kate said looking away from her friend. Everyone laughed and lapsed back into comfortable silence, sipping on their drinks, taking a minute to decompress after the crazy day they just had.

Finally the boys couldn't take the silence any longer and started talking about the newest video game that had just come out.

"So are you guys still looking into moving?" Jim asked Kate, who was listening as Grace Ryan went on about her dance class and hoe she's going to be dancing on the 'big stage' soon.

"What, you're moving?" Lanie asked, her hawk like hearing not missing anything.

"I never said anything about moving," Kate said to her best friend. By now everyone had heard and was listening to Kate and her father talk. "Yes, Castle and I are looking into it, but if we do it's a while off. It's not like we're moving tomorrow," she said.

"But why do you want to move? I though you liked living here," Martha cut in.

"We do mother," Castle said. "But we would rather our kids grow up outside of the city. We want them to grow up in a neighborhood with lawns, and backyards; a place where they can run and play outside when the weather is warm."

"What about work? Are you still going to be on our team?" Ryan asked. It was a silly question because to thought of the Castle family moving anytime in the next six months was a wild and crazy one.

"Of course I'm still going to be on your team," Kate said eyeing her partner with a smirk. "I still want to work where I am, I just don't want my kids growing up in the city. I don't want them exposed to the thing Castle and I were as kids."

Everyone nodded, they could all agree on that. Even Ryan and Jenny moved out of Manhattan when Grace was still a baby; they had the same thoughts Kate did: they didn't want her exposed to the stuff they knew could happen in the city.

"Well whatever happens, we're right here with you," Esposito said. It was a corny line and made everyone cringe, but it was true. They were a family and nothing, not even a move could break that up.

"I'll drink to that," Lanie said, holding up her drink.

Everyone raised their drinks and clinked them together in resounding cheers.

* * *

**A/N: Well this is it; this is the end of this little adventure. I wanted to say thank you everyone who read and favorite and reviewed this story, it means a lot to me.  
Anyway what I was wondering was: What do YOU guys want to see? I have a few ideas for more stories, but what to you guys want? What do you think the kids will be like when they are older? Send me stuff!**

Anyway, I'll talk to you guys later.  
Oh! and like I've said before in y'all want, come find me and Tumblr and we can talk.  
Ok I'm really leaving now. ok, bye.  



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